How do you balance innovation and tradition in event planning?

Looking back at my 50 years of business oriented experiences, I see clearly now, where I performed well and where I failed. Sharing those points will you is my aspect of "tradition". The innovative part is your energy, your synergy, your determination to hang tough when the sky is falling. Allow me to encourage you regardless of your walk in life, to stay the course. Traditional: 1. Be on your best manners and best appearance. SMILE! 2. Be of service to others especially those less fortunate. 3. Be healthy. Take quiet walks even for a few minutes, rain or shine. Learn to be still and meditate. 4. Regardless of current circumstances, be grateful. 5. Limit technology. End cell phone addiction. Innovative: Read books with pictures!

I also recommend the 'grassroots' approach, using social media to do quick polls or question your audience - it gives you insight into their feelings about your new proposal and helps get your brand advocates invested in your innovation - spreading the word and driving a successful activation.

A lot of times people know they want to plan something incredible, transformative and unforgettable, BUT unless you understand exactly what you want to achieve you’ll be wasting your time, money and resources. Think about these four key questions: 1. Do you want to thank people for being a part of your network or community? 2. Do you want to generate leads or referrals? 3. Do you want to generate new business opportunities from existing clients? 4. Do you want to solidify and strengthen relationships? Knowing exactly what you want to achieve can help you create the right touch points, key messaging, and help you to determine the tiny details that will help you create a memorable event that also achieves your business goals.

All aspects of our professional and personal lives have evolved: work-life balance/integration, future of work, wellness, healthy food & beverage choices and sustainability. These trends are expected to be present at the events we choose to attend. If event planners can integrate these trends into their events, it will reflect an innovative approach to meeting the needs of the attendees.

The ideal case scenario is to use flip style of innovation which smartly marries the old and the new. I recommend viewing / mapping the event experience/ tech plan from the design thinking lenses of desirability, feasibility and viability. The intelligence of legacy presented in newer ways generally hits the sweet spot of all three. We have used that for the most conservative audiences to just see their inputs as poll results live on Screen as vote/sentiment measure

When I talk to our clients - many of whom are international, innovative Fortune 500 companies investing massive resources in their events or L&D programs - something surprising keeps hitting me. As grown-ups, many of us reproduce the learning experiences we have spent our lives complaining about. Crowded conference rooms with one-size-fits-all content, boring webinars with content critical to the company but that the employees couldn't care less about, and book clubs with books no one wants to read. Without realizing it, we develop a top-down vision of how employees or event participants should be growing and what should matter to them. If your event were a school, how different would you want it to be from the school you attended?